Talk:Musculoskeletal Mechanics and Modeling
Review #1
Comments to the authors: The article provides a good overview of musculoskeletal mechanics and modeling that is well-written and appears likely to be useful to many students and researchers in the field. The article complements information on other Scholarpedia pages and provides a good set of references and links to other resources.
A few clarifications/edits may improve readability and utility for the reader:
proprioception: The text and diagram use the term ‘proprioception’, but from the context it appears that ‘somatosensation’ might be more appropriate.
external forces: The article uses a framework that divides the models into two parts – one of which is described as ‘external forces’. That term is often used to describe forces external to the body, but authors use this term to refer to forces external to the other part of the model (the skeleton). This distinction is made in the caption of Figure 2, but it would also be useful to state this clearly in the text.
attachment points: The readability paragraph on via points (last paragraph in ‘External Forces’) could be improved. It starts with a statement that fixed points are often used for attachments, but then goes into details about the via points. The paragraph could be revised to emphasize the key points and to improve the flow.
tendons and ligaments: Although the article appropriately emphasizes the role of muscle and the importance of appropriately modeling the lines of action, it would also be helpful to mention and briefly describe the viscoelastic characteristics of the tendon and the role of the ligaments as one source of the constraints on joint motion.
SIMM and OpenSim: The paragraph about SIMM and OpenSim comes across as rather negative and ignores many of the useful and attractive features of SIMM and OpenSim. Although an honest assessment of the limitations of the tools is valuable, the authors should be careful to also include a brief description of the useful and attractive features. It would also be helpful to cite some of the important papers that have used each of these tools (SIMM, OpenSim, and MSMS).
